Contractor Sues LG Energy Solution Over Pipeline Explosion
- Dong-won Park, a South Korean employee of IBG Construction Inc., has sued LG Energy Solution Michigan Inc. and two of its site foremen in Ottawa County Circuit Court over injuries he sustained in a Sept. 23 pipeline rupture at LG’s battery plant in Holland, Michigan. The complaint was filed Oct. 13.
- According to the suit, a supervisor asked for piping changes on “Line 4” to be finished that afternoon, and two foremen were handling water and pressure valves for a leak check while Park, who was in the U.S. on a business visa for supervisory and consulting work, stood nearby.
- The complaint says the procedure required three valves to be fully opened at the same time, and that if any inner valve stayed closed, trapped pressure could cause an explosion. It alleges improper valve handling caused the line to rupture, leaving Park with a severe traumatic brain injury and severe fractures and disfiguring injuries to his face, jaw and mouth.
- The suit alleges premises liability against LG and negligence against LG and the two foremen, and seeks a jury trial. The claims are allegations and haven’t been decided by a court.
Court Upholds OSHA General Duty Citation After Truck Fatally Struck Oil Rig Mover
- The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 28 upheld an OSHA general duty clause citation against Hall Trucking Inc., a company that moves oil rigs, after one of its trucks fatally struck an employee during a rig move.
- The company’s written procedures required trucks to have backup alarms and backup cameras, employee training and workers to wear high-visibility gear. They also called for firing workers who broke safety rules. But the court said that during the incident the back-up camera had glare, the spotter had his back turned and employees weren’t wearing high-visibility gear. Employees generally ignored back-up alarms, and the company hadn’t given them written policies on struck-by hazards.
- The court agreed that an internal traffic control plan, which lets an employer choose among measures such as keeping workers and trucks apart, requiring high-visibility gear and providing training, was a specific, feasible and effective way to abate the hazard. It rejected the company’s argument that such plans were too rigid for sites where conditions change 50 to 100 times a day.
- The court also found that Hall Trucking waived its argument that a specific construction standard should apply instead of the general duty clause, and it upheld the judge’s exclusion of the company’s expert, a former OSHA compliance officer with no traffic-control experience.
Worker Loses Three Fingers at SpaceX’s Starlink Campus Near Austin; OSHA Investigating
- A worker suffered the amputation of three fingers Oct. 12 at SpaceX’s Starlink manufacturing facility in Bastrop County, Texas, according to the Department of Labor.
- It is the first OSHA inquiry at SpaceX’s Bastrop site, but the fifth amputation reported at one of SpaceX’s Texas sites since 2021, according to OSHA. The records do not say what type of work was underway or whether the worker was employed by SpaceX or a contractor.
- The inquiry is one of at least three ongoing OSHA investigations into SpaceX in Texas. The others involve falls at Starbase in South Texas, including one in May that killed a 25-year-old SpaceX contractor.
- OSHA fined SpaceX $43,506 over a 2021 Starbase incident in which a worker’s hand was crushed by steel tubing, partially amputating his ring finger. The company was not cited in three other Starbase amputation incidents between April 2023 and June 2024.